Shane Black and Producer Neal Moritz Talk DOC SAVAGE; Black Is “Back on It” with the Aim of It Being His Next Film

While Shane Black’s skills as a screenwriter have been more than proven with films like Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and The Monster Squad, he also showed himself to be an immensely talented director with the fantastic 2005 gem Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. A few years ago he signed on to write and direct a feature film iteration of the 1930s and 40s pul fiction hero Doc Savage, but his plans for that film were deterred a bit when Marvel sought Black out to come on and helm the highly anticipated Iron Man 3.

Steve recently spoke with Black at the Iron Man 3 junket and also with producer Neal Moritz in a separate, extended interview, and both provided some very promising updates on Doc Savage, saying the film is back on track with the goal of making it Black’s next film. Hit the jump for more.

For those unfamiliar with Doc Savage, the character was described by writer Lester Dent as “a mix of Sherlock Holmes’ deductive abilities, Tarzan’s outstanding physical abilities, Craig Kennedy’s scientific education, and Abraham Lincoln’s goodness.” Steve asked Black about the project, and the filmmaker confirmed that he’s still attached:

“Well Doc Savage is proceeding on pace. I mean we’ve got to try to set a deal now to go back into that, so as Iron Man wound down I sort of reconnected with Sony who have been gracious to say, ‘We’ll wait a year and sit on these rights until you’re finished with this other picture that we don’t control.’ So they were really cool about it, they were really nice. So yeah I’m back on it.”

Even more promising, producer Neal Moritz added that Black is “100%” still writing and directing Doc Savage, with the aim for it to be the filmmaker’s next project. Obviously Black will be yielding a number of offers following the assured success of Iron Man 3, but the prospect of him taking on a 1930s action/adventure film with a classic hero is very, very exciting, so hopefully things move forward smoothly.

Look for Steve’s full interviews with both Black and Moritz on Collider soon, and watch his video interview with Black below.